A closer look at 'Marvel vs. Capcom 3'

It's only been a decade since we last saw a new Marvel vs. Capcom fighting game -- 2000's Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes for the Sega Dreamcast (followed by PlayStation 2 and Xbox two years later) -- but the online rumors about a new title proved true last week when Capcom revealed it was working on Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.

Game Hunters was on-hand to see the game in action with an extensive video trailer to show off the characters and graphics, primarily. "We're very excited we can finally share this information with you," begins Capcom producer Ryota Nitsuma, via his translator. "Let's start with a good trailer and then we will get into details."

The fast-paced and colorful trailer showed off the high-definition characters in the game, including classic fighters -- such as Hulk, Wolverine and Iron Man from Marvel and Ryu and Morrigan from Capcom's Street Fighter and Darkstalkers, respectively -- as well as new characters like Resident Evil's Chris Redfield.

"As you can see, this is the biggest engine a fighting game has ever had under the hood, when it comes to raw processing power," says Seth Killian, Capcom's "special advisor" on the game. "This is the MT Framework that's powering the game, the same technology that brought us Resident Evil 5 and Lost Planet 2."

Indeed, the graphics looked outstanding in the trailer, which was allegedly in-game footage. The fighting scenes took place on rooftops, city streets and even in the air in a night sky. The Hulk model, for example, has been resigned to look even more muscular, while the classic design of Iron Man, in his shiny red and gold suit, "was a delight for the lighting guys to work on," says Killian. "You can really see the MT Framework at work here ... I can't stop looking at him ... and, um, Morrigan, too."

Nitsuma assured the members of the media, who were buzzing about the trailer, this is just a small sampling of the characters that will make it to the final game in the spring of 2011.

The goal is to create about 30 characters -- 15 per side -- for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game. That said, Nitsuma mentioned he wouldn't rule out DLC either, but it wasn't a priority at this time.

The goal of the team responsible for Marvel vs. Capcom 3, says Killian, was to keep the same depth as its predecessors but also open doors to as many players as possible. "We're returning to roots here, with core mechanics that made this series fun, but at the same time we want to make it more accessible and reduce some of its complexity."

After all, as Killian points out, Marvel was just a comic book company during the last decade but has now ballooned into a "multibillion dollar entertainment juggernaut," thanks in part due to comic book heroes embraced (or perhaps exploited) by Hollywood movie studios.

"Marvel characters are now bigger than ever -- but while we're using new technology to take it to the next level, we need to have a connection to its roots, and the fans, so we have an all-star team on this game who were responsible for past titles."

On a related note, we asked about controls, to which Nitsuma answered they were "in flux" at this point during development. "Nothing has been finalized yet. On one hand we don't want to make something completely new because many Marvel vs. Capcom 2 fans have expectations, but we do want to expand audience."

Not a lot of details were shared on game modes, fighting mechanics or story in the Q&A session with Nitsuma, but he did seem excited to talk about music. "Our goal is to get 100 pieces of music for this game, and that includes old favorites, new tracks and remixes, too."

"We are so pleased to be working with Marvel again. Marvel vs. Capcom 3 has been one of the most requested titles for us to produce by our fans," said Christian Svensson, corporate officer and vice president of strategic planning and business development at Capcom, in a company press statement issued today. "Our Capcom development studio is creating the most epic fighting game ever developed and Marvel's input into that process has been invaluable."

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About Mike Snider

Mike Snider began covering the video game industry during the Super Nintendo-Sega Genesis clash in 1992. An original pinball wizard, he eventually was seduced by Robotron: 2084 and Tempest. These days he is a fan of action/shooters and lives out his Keith Moon fantasies playing a mean drum kit on music games. More about Mike.

About Brett Molina

Brett Molina has been writing about video games for USA TODAY since 2005. He is well-versed in Madden NFL, the fighting genre and first-person shooters. The first video game he played was Asteroids at a local arcade. He has been hooked ever since. More about Brett.